As President Donald Trump stakes his claim on the future of cryptocurrency in America, investors and industry insiders are divided on whether his administration truly marks a turning point for digital assets.

Kevin O’Leary, chairman of O’Leary Ventures and a longtime cryptocurrency advocate, recently lauded Trump’s stance on digital assets, arguing that this administration is ushering in a “new phase” for the industry.

Speaking on “My View with Lara Trump,” O’Leary asserted that the so-called “cowboy era of crypto” — marked by high-profile fraud cases and regulatory uncertainty — was over.

Recall that O’Leary was indeed affected by perhaps the biggest crypto fraud case of all — FTX. As an investor and spokesperson for the exchange, O’Leary lost a significant amount of money when Sam Bankman-Fried’s startup went bankrupt in late 2022.

“All the crypto cowboys are in jail or out of business. So now we’re in a new phase. There’s a new tone with the government. Trump has put it forward,” O’Leary said.

But rug pulls and devastating hacks are still commonplace.

Meanwhile, crypto “whales” and influencers are making a killing by pumping up coins with fake “insider knowledge,” inflating prices before cashing out, and leaving everyday investors holding the bag. It’s the Wild West out there, and the scammers are riding high.

O’Leary’s optimism comes as Trump embarks on one new crypto initiative after another.

After speaking at the Bitcoin 2024 Conference in Nashville, the then-GOP nominee launched World Liberty Financial. Two days before his inauguration, he unveiled the Official Trump (TRUMP) meme coin. And all of those SEC-led investigations into cryptocurrency-related companies (i.e., Binance and Coinbase)? They’re disappearing.

Earlier this month, Trump signed an executive order establishing a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. The move, which designated certain digital assets like XRP, SOL, and ADA as part of a government-backed strategic reserve, has been touted by Trump and his allies as a major step toward integrating crypto into traditional finance.

While O’Leary hails these developments as proof of a regulatory turning point, not everyone in the crypto world is convinced.

‘This ain’t it’

Critics argue that Trump’s newfound embrace of digital assets hurts the industry’s credibility and paves the way for crony capitalism.

“Crypto is at an existential moment,” Zack Guzmán, a crypto journalist and founder of the Web3 media company Trustless Media, warned on Jan. 18. “I understand the desire to make quick money; I understand the excitement of thinking short-term; I understand stand [sic] why Trump, a man who has grifted in every way to make money for himself would so easily win the industry. But this ain’t it.”

Only politically favored crypto firms will thrive under government protection, Guzmán said.

The same day Trump decided to launch a memecoin, which skyrocketed 10,000% in value, crypto elitists dressed up in tuxedos and gowns, ready to hobnob at a gala in Washington, D.C. They were completely unaware that Official Trump would soon become a digital dumpster fire (it’s currently down over 84% from its peak).

“I’m not saying Trump just used everyone in crypto by throwing a black tie event in DC while simultaneously launching a memecoin without them, but that’s exactly what he did,” Guzmán wrote on Jan. 18. “This industry is his industry now, whether they are aware of it or not. Frankly, that’s extremely sad.”

‘Stupid and embarrassing’

After Trump launched Official Trump, Balaji Srinivasan, a cryptocurrency investor, called meme coins a “zero sum game.”

“There is no wealth creation,” he tweeted the day before Trump’s inauguration. “Every buy order is simply matched by a sell order. And after an initial spike, the price eventually crashes and the last buyers lose everything.”

Crypto entrepreneur Erik Voorhees wrote on X:

Trumpcoin is stupid and embarrassing. Trumpcoin is a signal of sea change in US fintech policy towards much more permissive innovation. Both are true.

SkyBridge founder and former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci called it “Idi Amin-level corruption”, referring to the military officer whose Ugandan rule in the 1970s was defined by corruption.

And that Bitcoin reserve — the one David Sacks, Trump’s crypto czar, says will be filled with seized digital assets — seems far-fetched, too. Crypto analyst Dessislava Aubert told the Agence France-Presse that the U.S. government must return seized Bitcoin to all victims identified as suffering from a hack.

Despite the skepticism, O’Leary remains steadfast in his belief that Trump’s policies will legitimize crypto in ways no previous administration has.

“The big news is that this will be the first administration that’s going to say this sector belongs in America. The development should be here. The technology should be mastered here. We should lead the world in it,” O’Leary added.

Whether Trump’s promises translate into lasting regulatory clarity—or are merely political grandstanding—remains an open question. For now, the crypto world watches closely, caught between hope and deep-seated doubt.

David Sacks, President Donald Trump’s go-to “czar” for AI and crypto, and his venture-capital firm, Craft Ventures, recently parted ways with a whopping $200 million worth of digital asset holdings.

According to Bloomberg, citing a memo from the White House, Sacks and Craft liquidated their entire crypto portfolio—Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL)—before Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20.

This revelation came on March 5 by White House counsel David Warrington.

Among the divestitures: Sacks ditched his stakes in Coinbase and Robinhood, as well as his limited-partner shares in crypto funds Multicoin Capital and Blockchain Capital.

Craft Ventures followed suit, selling off its own interests in Multicoin Capital and Bitwise Asset Management.

Sacks has repeatedly insisted he’s not into crypto anymore—at least not since becoming the White House’s crypto czar. He even made a point of addressing it directly on March 3, responding to a tweet by VC reporter George Hammond.

“Correct. I sold all my cryptocurrency (including BTC, ETH, and SOL) prior to the start of the administration,” he clarified on X (formerly Twitter).

Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren had also been pressing for Sacks to release his financial disclosures to the public. By divesting his crypto holdings before taking on the role of crypto adviser, Sacks is clearly distancing himself from any potential bias.

But Trump’s track record on the matter? That’s a different story.

Potential conflicts of interest

On the eve of his inauguration, Trump launched his very own memecoin, Official Trump (TRUMP) — a token that has no utility. But that didn’t stop it from gaining a cult following and peaking at a value of $15 billion.

Those followers? They lost billions. Official Trump is currently down about 83.5% of its value from its all-time high. See below.

A recent Financial Times investigation shows the project raising at least $350 million in the first three weeks post-launch. Despite claims that it’s “not distributed or sold by Donald Trump or his affiliates,” the memecoin’s real backers seem to be Trump’s subsidiary, CIC Digital, and Fight Fight Fight LLC, which own a whopping 80% of the token.

Trump’s crypto ventures didn’t stop there. Last September, he launched World Liberty Financial, a decentralized finance platform that peddles the WLFI token. His sons—Eric, Don Jr., and Barron—are all reportedly involved in the project.

This week, World Liberty Financial raised $550 million in a token sale, pushing its total funding close to $600 million so far. So far, it has secured $550 million by selling its WLFI tokens, data from ICO Drops shows.

Last month, crypto.news reported that World Liberty Financial sold over 24 billion tokens, leaving around 950 million tokens available for purchase.

It’s worth noting that, on March 6, Trump signed a second Executive Order to establish a U.S. Bitcoin reserve and a Digital Asset Stockpile. At the time, Sacks downplayed the decision to include altcoins in the stockpile.

Buddying up to Binance?

Binance is reportedly in talks with Trump and/or World Liberty Financial to sell a financial stake in its U.S. arm. The discussions reportedly began after Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, rbeagan looking to reestablish a presence in the U.S. market.

It remains unclear whether the stake would be contingent on a pardon for Binance founder and former CEO Changpeng Zhao.

Recall how Binance’s recent brush with the law. The company, which has no official headquarters, ran into significant legal trouble over allegations of money laundering and regulatory violations.

But under the Trump administration, cryptocurrency companies like Binance stand to benefit from loose regulations. So far, the Trump-appointed leadership of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has halted numerous investigations into crypto-related companies that started under President Joe Biden’s watch — including Binance.